"Dust itself is very important because it's the stuff that forms stars and planets, like the sun and Earth, respectively, so to know where it comes from is an important question," said Ryan Lau, Cornell postdoctoral associate for astronomy. "Our work strongly reinforces the theory that supernovae are producing the dust seen in galaxies of the early universe," he said.

Sifting through the center of the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have made the first direct observations – using an infrared telescope aboard a modified Boeing 747 – of cosmic building-block dust resulting from an ancient supernova.

Sagittarius A above, East (blue): a hypernova remnant, which was produced by a violent explosion only several tens of thousands of years ago. Its origin is unknown. Explanations range from a star disrupted by a black hole to a chain reaction of ordinary supernovae or even a gamma-ray burst. Sagittarius A West or Minispiral (red): Gas and dust streamers ionized by stars and spiraling around the very center, possibly feeding the nucleus.Sagittarius A *: A bright and very compact radio point at the intersection of the arms of the Minispiral (difficult to see in this image). This Radio image of Sagittarius A taken with the VLA by Y. Farhad-Zadeh & M. Morris)

Lead author Lau explains that one of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies – forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang – contain so much dust. The leading theory is that supernovae – stars that explode at the end of their lives – contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon. The research is published March 19 in Science Express.

Peering into the center of the Milky Way galaxy, in this false color image below, contour lines reveal the dusty area of Sagittarius A East — an ancient supernova remnant. NASA/CORNELL

The astronomers examined Sagittarius A East, a 10,000-year-old supernova remnant near the center of our galaxy. Lau said that when a supernova explodes, the materials in its center expand and form dust. This has been observed in several young supernova remnants – such as the famed SN1987A and Cassiopeia A. In the turbulent supernova environment, scientists expect the churning dust to be destroyed. "That is theoretically," Lau said. "There have been no direct observations of any dust surviving the environment of the supernova remnant … until now, and that's why our observations of an 'old' supernova are so important," he said.